United States Senior Housing Problem

The first baby boomers turned 65 years old in 2012, that is roughly 2.8 million seniors nationwide. By the time we are done with this wave of baby boomers turning of age, there will be approximately 70 million seniors according to the AARP. While working on a series of blogs about New York City and its crippling housing stock, I came across an interesting video. In the video, Henry Cisneros, the former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, talked about the current state of senior housing in the United States. He spoke about the current challenges faced by seniors with the shortage of suitable living environments that can accommodate to their needs; what is being done about it; and what the plans are for the future.

I want to share this video because this is not only a challenge for seniors , but a challenge for the American society as a whole. As a healthcare professional and Aging in Place Specialist, I see a huge opportunity for society to move forward by advocating for more user-friendly spaces and fully accessible communities that will not only benefit seniors but anyone regardless of their level of function. Mr. Cisneros mentioned a series of long term solutions that could help in dealing with this challenge. One of the solutions was the creation of a program similar to the Weatherization Assistance Program, WAP. For those not familiar with WAP, it is a public assistance program that helps income-eligible families reduce their energy consumption and finance repairs to make the home more energy efficient. Mr. Cisneros proposes a similar program that would provide financial assistance for seniors and homeowners to retrofit their homes in order to make them more user-friendly. Any comments or feedback about this video is welcomed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 at 2:14 pm by admin and is filed under Living at Home.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.